Contemporary Photography in Mexico: Existe lo que tiene nombre, on view at the ASU Art Museum, consists of more than fifty photographic and video works by twenty-three contemporary photographers all living in Mexico. The exhibition is curated by Sergio De La Torre and Javier Ramírez Limón and is managed by Julio Cesar Morales. In the U.S., our view of Mexico is too often through the lens of American photography, this exhibition alleviates that by showing works by artists that actually live and work in Mexico.

The title of the show Existe lo que tiene nombre translates to, “that which has a name exists,” comes from an exchange with Jazzibe Santos whose grandmother had a tendency to label unexpected objects with where they went and what use they were for. The act of labeling everything in the world, in one hand makes logical sense, but on the other hand seems rather absurd. This sense of absurdity permeates the show throughout. Santos’ work, Cuerpo-Cola series, is a diptych of two different images of bars of soap with individual labels that translate to “body” and “bottom.” Santos comments that this was not due to any kind of memory loss, but as a way to find order within chaos, much like the artist’s photographic practice. The diptych is visually simple, but quite poignant.

Pablo López Luz has three large prints in View of Mexico City. It features grand aerial views of Mexico City with mostly white and beige buildings that seem to undulate and adapt to the sweeping hills and vistas. Political undertones can be read in the work, but Luz chooses a more enigmatic approach by engaging with historic landscapes by Mexican painters. There are never actual human beings in his images, just our consequent outgrowth. The landscape is epic and psychologically daunting and induces the viewer to imagine our miniscule bodies in one of those buildings.

In a similar vein, Livia Corona Benjamin presents Mexico’s urban density albeit in a more documentary style. Her series of works, Two million homes for Mexico, is visual evidence of the government mandated explosion of construction of low-income housing in rural areas of Mexico. What results is a hollow kind of urbanization, where there is basic shelter but no public amenities like schools or parks. She depicts scenes of these barren cityscapes in the middle of nowhere, as well as interior shots of the people living in these houses. Benjamin captures the heartbreaking consequences in a playfully absurd way. Her images adroitly ask: Did you expect any other outcome?

A more conceptual piece is Mariela Sancari’s Moses, which was initiated by her father’s death. According to Sancari, she was not allowed to see her father’s dead body, thus preventing her from truly accepting her father’s death. She proceeded to put an ad out asking for men that resembled him to be part of her photography project. Surprisingly, she got replies and proceeded to take photos of these men, even going as far dressing these strangers in her father’s clothes. The actual work in the show is a triptych of portraits of one of these men and a stack of copies of the ad she created. The ideas Sancari explores and the accompanying visual documents combine to make a hauntingly evocative statement.Throughout the exhibition one gets a sense of a country in political and social crisis, but it is never heavy handed. Instead, the curators have selected works of art that show the existence of a place and people, despite all of Mexico’s current hardships. The majority of the work is not directly about the politics of Mexico, but is instead about the absurdity that results in such a place. Sometimes beautiful, other times not so much.